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iMovie 08: How can I import AVCHD files??

well the index files on my JVC (native Mpeg2 DVD format) are:

MOV001.MOI
MOV002.MOI etc etc

they may be named differently for other formats but they should be the same as the actual movie files but their extension will be different.
The files should only be a few bytes in size.
 
Camotanker said:
i don't have the camera to do that with. its co owned and that is way beyond my experience level.

i did moun them in a .dmg file however that workaround did not work on mine.
Click to expand...

What model camera do you have? The utility program that came with my Sony SR1 allows me to move movie files back onto the camera (I suppose so I can connect the camera to a TV for viewing). Once there they can be imported into imovie from the camera.
 
johny5 said:
well the index files on my JVC (native Mpeg2 DVD format) are:

MOV001.MOI
MOV002.MOI etc etc

they may be named differently for other formats but they should be the same as the actual movie files but their extension will be different.
The files should only be a few bytes in size.
Click to expand...

the problem is i don't have the camera and vary rarely do. but i do have all the files. i do not see a .MOI file.

The camera we use is a Sony SR1. The only two files i see for the most part are .m2ts and .modd

When I have had the camera, it has loaded the video and captured it just fine. I'm just having a problem trying to get the footage on imovie without the camera.

I have even tried mounting the two types of files into a .dmg however mine is not as lucky as the previous poster who had luck doing this.

Anyhelp is appreciated.
 
Import filesd from Hard drive without camera

You can convert files for use with iMovie 08 using Voltaic, even on G5 iMacs. It creates a much bigger file but works fine directly from the hard drive without all the extra Song support files on the camera. Voltaic produces a .MOV file which ou can then import into iMovie. This is not an ideal solution but it works....there are lots of comments on this on the Apple Discusssion boards.
 
RichardG said:
You can convert files for use with iMovie 08 using Voltaic, even on G5 iMacs. It creates a much bigger file but works fine directly from the hard drive without all the extra Song support files on the camera. Voltaic produces a .MOV file which ou can then import into iMovie. This is not an ideal solution but it works....there are lots of comments on this on the Apple Discusssion boards.
Click to expand...

How does this program handle movies with dropped frames / errors? I have several that do not import into imovie all the way because it stops the import at the first dropped frame.
 
Everio = headaches.

johny5 said:
I too have this problem. I have a JVC everio (the 4gb CF version) and ages ago I copied off the files which I think were .MOD at the time over to my pc HDD. Since then I have loaded them up into PC applications and to do that I had to rename them to .MPG or .MP2 files.

Now the new imovie 08 supports DVD type files, which import from the camera absolutely great as I understand this cam records to the native DVD format and thus is hard to edit the file from the camera although 08 does this with ease!

Anyway I am stuck with these old files which I only renamed. I have tried renaming the extension to import them into 08 but it refuses to let you select the file. I think maybe the next step would be to copy a few files back to the cam and try importing them that way? Although I know I have deleted the other tiny files that the camera creates (I can only presume these were some kind of index files?).
Click to expand...

OK, check out mpeg stream here, http://www.squared5.com/

You can pretty much change most files and formats with it, aka a 4/3 into 16/9 .dv. mog, mov, etc.

i knwo this because i had to search EVERYWHERE to get help for the JVC HDD Everio line. I think maybe DV/tape is far better, but it is still too soon to tell. I know that my 1.8 10" 1st gen has a hard time with making movies from it and that imovie doesn't run that well. i think on the box it asks for a 1.9 gig chip which many people would equte the 1.83 with. I beg to differ, i won't even try to run civilization 4 with and am not looking forward to using fcp with it either. especially when everything from the everio you need to back up. So even if you get a big hardrive, those only last on average 4 to 5 years (certainly not 10 or more like tapes) so good luck with the upload "johnny 5" I look forward to you new movie coming out from pixar and that guy from larry sanders.

-americo:apple:
 
HOW TO DISKIMAGE M2TS FILES TO OPEN ON MAC iMovie 08

ELKAMAR said:
Hi,

Sirdir,

Can you please explain, step by step, how you do it ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Don't know if you've figured this out by now, but here's how I did it:

Connect HDR SR12 SONY by USB to Mac
Select USB CONNECT on camera's lcd
Camera's hard drive mounts on the desktop (I renamed it HDR SR12 from NO NAME)

(If you don't have the camera and are working from files copied from its hard drive, put all the folders and files in one folder--see list below--and image it using the following:)

Open DISK UTILITY
FILE: NEW: DISK IMAGE FROM FOLDER
NAVIGATE TO mounted camera disk
SELECT THE DISK ICON
HIT IMAGE
SAVE AS "HDR SR12" OR WHATEVER

THIS WILL COPY ALL OF THE FOLDERS AND FILE:


AVCHD
MODELCFG.IND
AVF_INFO
DCIM

as they are on the camera's hard drive.

Once the disk is imaged, eject the camera's hard drive from the desktop.

Mount the new disk image, either from Disk Utility or just clicking the .dmg. iMovie 08 should respond by opening the import screen and seeing the movie files just as if they were coming from the camera.

This should also work with files copied from the camera's hard drive, if you put them all in the same folder (see above list) and image it, using the NEW IMAGE FROM FOLDER in Disk Utility.

The .mts/.m2ts files are a fraction of the size of the Apple Intermediate codec files you get once iMovie has imported them.
 
Just copy AVCHD folder to drive root

I just got iMovie to detect my external USB drive as a camera, just by copying my AVCHD folder from my camera (a Sony HDR-SR11) to the root folder (base folder, or whatever you want to call it, just don't create an actual folder called "root" please...) of an external USB drive. I don't see any reason why this method wouldn't work on any other kind of drive.

No need to create a .dmg as far as I'm concerned :) Although if you don't have the support files (other than the MTS's) you'll probably need to do one of the hacks previously described by other people...
 
jsalido said:
I just got iMovie to detect my external USB drive as a camera, just by copying my AVCHD folder from my camera (a Sony HDR-SR11) to the root folder

True. This works by burning it to DVD, too, if you put the folder in the root of the disk. They were asking for the specific steps for creating a .dmg. I guess the point is put the AVCHD folder where iMovie will see it when the disk mounts? thanks.
Click to expand...
 
So how do you guys set up the root file on the external USB drive? More details... Thanks.
 
How To Set Up Root File For Avchd Boot Imovie

mwinn said:
So how do you guys set up the root file on the external USB drive? More details... Thanks.
Click to expand...

Just drag the folder AVCHD with all its contents to the drive. You apparently don't have to copy all the files I did in the post above. It seems to work with just the AVCHD folder. Don't put this folder into a folder of any kind, just leave it on the base of the external USB drive (or whatever ... you can burn the AVCHD folder to a disk image to a DVD,too, and it'll work). Open iMovie. Unmount the external drive then mount it again. When the drive mounts, iMovie should automatically open a window that says "camera detected ... etc." and bring up the IMPORT window.
 
Just to add, if you have ANY SD footage on the cam, you can't import avchd. You have to remove the SD footage for iMovie to recognize the avchd files.
 
wow great info guys i will be trying these steps today great cameras we have but wooow what a ***** format
 
Restoring the required AVCHD files the clean way

I was faced with the same issues as a few of the posters here i.e. I had only kept the .MTS files before I got my Mac and hence iMovie wasn't able to import.
Found some of the posts here really useful so I thought I'd share step by step getting the folder structure back to the way it was on the camera.

What you need:
- Sony PMB software installed on a PC
- Your camera, mine's a HDR-TG3
- Empty memory stick

1. Copy the .MTS files into a temporary video folder on your HDD
2. Open up Sony PMB and point it to your video folder - this should prompt you to analyse the MTS files and once the analysis is complete you'll have 2 additional files for each MTS file in the temporary video folder
4. Use your camera to format the memory card - this creates the basic folder structure.
5. Insert the memory card into a card reader and plug into your PC, I've got a USB card reader that came with my 16GB card.
6. Right click the analysed video folder in PMB and choose export to HandyCam (Memory Stick) - PMB will recognise your inserted memory stick as a camera and export begins.
7. The memory stick contents can now be copied to a drive for later import to iMovie

This process takes quite a while depending on the speed of your PC but the end result is a smoother way of importing the video into iMovie.

Hope that helps!
Peter
 
I have an AVCHD camera that worked on IMovie perfectly before and now Imovie is refusing to recognize it as anything other than a hard drive. What could have caused this change? I am opening everything exactly as I was before but I can't get it to recognize the camera as a camera.
 
iMovie not recognizing camera

Per aounfather: I have an AVCHD camera that worked on IMovie perfectly before and now Imovie is refusing to recognize it as anything other than a hard drive. What could have caused this change? I am opening everything exactly as I was before but I can't get it to recognize the camera as a camera.

I had the same thing happen recently. And it was right after I switched the recording mode from HD to SD. Wish I could post the link, but can't find it right now, may be on the Apple support pages: seems you have to erase all the SD footage before iMovie will recognize the drive as a camera and populate the preview thumbnails. Haven't tried it, but that's what the post said.
 
Canon Legria HFM36 camera - how to get old files into iMovies

Hi,

Would really appreciate to get some help concerning all the old files (quite a lot) already copied to an external hard disk. I copied the files via the "Image Mixer" tools for Windows. The files are now on a "IMx_AVCHD" folder and I can find both the .cpi and the .mts files. How can I get them into iMovies? I have read the thread, but only see examples with other cameras. I have tried to copy (just as a test) one .cpi file and one .mts file over to a duplicate "AVCHD" folder on an external hard disk, but iMovie only found the original files and not my test files.

Thanks a lot for help!
 
mafe said:
Hi,

Would really appreciate to get some help concerning all the old files (quite a lot) already copied to an external hard disk. I copied the files via the "Image Mixer" tools for Windows. The files are now on a "IMx_AVCHD" folder and I can find both the .cpi and the .mts files. How can I get them into iMovies? I have read the thread, but only see examples with other cameras. I have tried to copy (just as a test) one .cpi file and one .mts file over to a duplicate "AVCHD" folder on an external hard disk, but iMovie only found the original files and not my test files.

Thanks a lot for help!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if this helps. I've found that iMovie seems to like .mov files the best. If you download a little free program called FLV Crunch, you should be able to convert almost any file into a .mov document, and then you can import them into iMovie. Handbrake is also free, but it uses a whole may more amount of processor power to do essentially the same thing that FLV Crunch does.
 
Maybe this has been answer. To work with avchd is copy the whole file structure to your pc copy the avchd folder and then use the capture from camera feature In imovie.
 
Still not working... Anyone who can help?

Hi, I just tried Fly Church but it don´t accept the file version .cpi
My camera is Canon M36 and the files are unfortunately already on a hard disk already. I don´t find a way they can be copied back to the camera in a successful way. :(
Thanks a lot for any help!
 
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